The present invention relates generally to the field of biofeedback. More particularly, the present invention relates to a device for detecting when a person is about to fall asleep and providing a feedback to the person indicating the impending sleep state.
Sleep deprivation is a common problem among airline pilots and other workers who are required to perform complex technical tasks over a prolonged period of time. Loss of sleep and fatigue in these settings can significantly impair cognitive function, and can lead to dangerous decrements in human performance. In particular, falling asleep at the controls of a commercial vehicle such as a truck, tanker, or airplane can lead to potentially catastrophic consequences. Besides the transportation context, drastic consequences may result by an operator falling asleep at the controls of a nuclear power plant, an electrical power grid, or other system that could impact many lives.
A number of proposals have been advanced to detect sleepiness by measuring various aspects of a subject""s physiology or actions.
For example, headgear has been designed to measure eye and head movements. The resulting pattern of movements may then be correlated to sleep state, logged, and the log transmitted to a remote location. Unfortunately, detection of sleep onset based on changes in body movements is not a sufficiently timely method because the subject is likely quite inattentive by the time such sleep indications begin to occur. This method also requires sampling of the signal over a prolonged period of time, e.g.,  greater than 30 seconds. This method. Is also subject to artifact if sleep onset is not associated with the anticipated eye and head movements. For further details, refer to U.S. Pat. No. 4,836,219, issued to Hobson, et al.
Automated monitoring of eye movement alone, as a surrogate for sleep, has also been proposed. It has the advantage of being a noninvasive monitor. However, it has a number of difficulties. In order to assess blink rate and eyelid speed, a normal baseline must be established. Thus, an extensive calibration time is required. Additionally, if a baseline is established during an already drowsy state, such a system may be unable to detect the relatively small change occurring with transition from drowsiness to sleep onset. Such a system is also susceptible to false positive measurements, because an increase in blink rate may not represent drowsiness, but rather dust in the eye or surprise. For further details, refer to U.S. Pat. No. 5,570,698, issued to Liang et al.
It has also been proposed to monitor a number of physiological changes at once and correlating them to drowsiness. Five parameters are described: pulse rate variability, vasomotor response, muscle tone, blood flow and reaction time. This method suffers from the disadvantage that there is no evidence firmly linking these physiological changes to sleep. For example, there may be several other explanations for change in vasomotor response. A high rate of false positive alarms is to be expected with this method. This method also requires baseline measurements that must be obtained over an extended period of time. This significantly limits the applicability of the method. As mentioned above, if the baseline is established during an already drowsy state, the small change from drowsiness to sleep may not be detectable. Additionally, physiological monitoring of sleep onset only detects the manifestations of sleep, and not the inattention that results from sleep onset. For further details, refer to U.S. Pat. No. 5,917,415, issued to Atlas.
A vehicle control device has been proposed that analyzes steering inputs and correlates these to the state of wakefulness of the operator. Specifically, measurements such as swerving movements (yaw rate), lateral movement, speed, and response time of the driver to these parameters are input to a computer, which sounds an alarm when values exceed certain preset parameters. For further details, refer to U.S. Pat. No. 5,815,070, issued to Yoshikawa. Similarly, it has been proposed to detect driver condition by comparison of driver inputs with previously defined baseline values. For further details, refer to U.S. Pat. No. 5,821,860 issued to Yokoyama et al. These more indirect methods suffer from most of the same problems note above with respect to methods that monitor head and eye movement and other physiological parameters. Of course, variations in both road and driver can lead to a highly variable baseline, and thus can only detect a case where the driver""s condition is extremely degraded. These methods would require significant time to determine abnormal driving conditions, and may not detect degradation until too late to effectively arouse the driver.
Monitoring of EEG signals has also been proposed for monitoring wakefulness. The proposed device relies primarily on comparisons of driver response and road conditions. Such measurements are likely to be extremely variable from driver to driver and road to road, and false alarms are likely to be frequent. For further details, refer to Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) no. 5-96971.
It has also been proposed to monitor EEG and use frequency analysis of the EEG to obtain xe2x80x9chigh frequencyxe2x80x9d ( greater than 30 Hz) components in order to predict sleep. This method suffers from a number of inaccuracies and disadvantages. Little data exists to firmly verify the hypothesis that EEG power in the high frequency range correlates reliably with drowsiness. No validation of this measure in explicitly sleep deprived humans has been provided. Moreover, it is unlikely that a continuous measure of drowsiness is available, as recent work suggests that drowsiness represents more an inability to maintain the waking state (i.e., propensity to enter the sleep state) than an ongoing alteration in waking brain function. Additionally, analysis of high frequency noise is technically difficult. Electrical noise, muscular movements (eyeblinks), etc. generate significant artifact. Accordingly, it is likely that false positives would be common. For further details, refer to U.S. Pat. No. 5,813,993, issued to Kaplan et al and Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) no. 6-292661, by Mamoru et al.
Another proposal is to use a complex xe2x80x9cneural networkxe2x80x9d to compare raw, unprocessed EEG signals to a known baseline signal to determine the probability of sleep. Such a device is proposed primarily for use as a portable sleep-scoring device, but may be adapted for use as a vigilance monitor. According to such a system, EEG signal is correlated to sleep stage, producing a xe2x80x9cwakeogram.xe2x80x9d Such a correlation is based on human observation of the EEG, which has not clearly been correlated to loss of alertness. The proposed system requires a period of extensive prior calibration to train the processor. Such a need for prior calibration significantly reduces the applicability of their device. For further details, refer to U.S. Pat. No. 5,999,846, issued to Pardey et al.
Another system proposes monitoring of EEG signals, the transmission of those signals to a remote location. It does not, however, propose logging brain signals to a third party for data analysis. For further details, refer to U.S. Pat. No. 6,011,991, issued to Mardirssian.
Sleep onset is characterized by specific changes in the human electroencephalogram (EEG) and electromyelogram (EMG). Skilled operator analysis of such changes in the raw EEG can readily prevent humans from falling asleep, and has been used in clinical medicine to study the physiology of sleep states. For example, refer to Leibenluft, E., Moul, D. E., Schwartz, P. J., Madden, P. A., and Wehr, T. A., xe2x80x9cA Clinical Trial of Sleep Deprivation in Combination With Antidepressant Medicationxe2x80x9d Psychiatry Research, 46(3): 213-27, March 1993 (93262082).
Automated devices based on computer interpretation of the raw EEG also exist. These devices, however, are large, unwieldy, and do not process the EEG in real time. Hence, they cannot be used to prevent inadvertent sleep.
Thus, what is needed is an automated device that processes and interprets EEG and/or EMG data in real time to detect sleep onset, without being unduly large. What is also needed is such a device that is further adapted to prevent sleep when sleep onset is detected. Such a device would be applicable to any situation where ongoing vigilance in the continuous performance of a difficult technical task is required. Such a device would also directly monitor the EEG, would detect the onset of sleep sooner than a device that monitors only response to stimuli.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a process that interprets EEG and/or EMG data in real time to detect sleep onset.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an automated device that processes and interprets EEG and/or EMG data in real time to detect sleep onset.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an automated device that processes and interprets EEG and/or EMG data in real time to detect sleep onset, and which is not unduly large.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide an automated device that processes and interprets EEG and/or EMG data in real time to detect sleep onset, and further to prevent sleep when sleep onset is detected.
It is a further object of the present invention to prevent a subject from sleeping by detecting sleep onset via processing and interpretation of EEG and/or EMG data in real time.
The present invention monitors a physiological process intrinsic to humans and which measures the sleep state directly.
Some of the above objects are obtained via a portable device capable of processing raw EEG in real time and transmitting a signal via auditory, vibrational, electrical, computer, global positioning device, or other means. This portable device prevents the inadvertent onset of sleep by sounding an audible alarm (or initiating other alert means) and awakening the subject when sleep was detected. Optionally, the portable device is empowered to automatically disengage machinery or automatically engage safety processes.
Because devices embodied according to the present invention are portable, they may be worn on the subject""s person or mounted in the cabin of a vehicle being driven by the vehicle. Contact leads mounted on the subject enable recording of raw EEG data. The devices may be interchanged between plural vehicles. Another optional feature of the portable device is a transmitter to alert other remote devices via wireless communications.
When sleep onset was detected, the subject is awakened by an alert mechanism. The alert mechanism may be auditory, vibrational, electrical, light, RF, and may employ a global positioning system (GPS) device, and may be conducted via a network, or some combination of the foregoing.
Other of the above objects are obtained by using derived or transformed EEG and/or EMG signals to trigger an alarm system to prevent operators of potentially dangerous equipment from inadvertent sleep. This process uses a fixed or portable device that is capable of monitoring and interpreting the EEG and/or EMG in real time to determine when sleep onset is occurring. Upon detecting sleep onset, the process uses alerting apparatus that is capable of transmitting an alert signal via auditory, vibrational, electrical, light, RF, or some combination thereof. The alert signal may be conducted via a global positioning system (GPS) device, a network, or some combination thereof.
The present invention makes several advances over the prior art. First, a specialized EEG processing algorithm is used that goes beyond frequency spectral analysis to isolate high frequency components of the EEG, followed by xe2x80x9cpower,xe2x80x9d or amplitude analysis of those high frequency components. The present invention uses a higher order algorithm based in part on phase coupling of the different frequency components obtained from spectral analysis of the EEG signal. Such phase coupling is novel, undisclosed in the prior art and detects the general oscillatory coherence that occurs with sleep onset. This methodology is much more resistant to artifact, and represents an advance over other devices.
A number of feedback options are used to alert the wearer of the impending sleep state.
Furthermore, the present invention uses a processed measure of EEG activity based on real time analysis of the EEG signal. The processing algorithm targets the degree of phase coupling of the EEG, the degree of burst suppression, and the power ratio between different frequency bands, and can operate on a limited segment of EEG data. This is in stark contrast to prior art techniques that use only limited EEG processing, and require a more extensive segment of EEG data to accurately detect sleep stage. Further the processing algorithm of the present invention has validation as a measure of loss of alertness resulting from sleep onset. The processing of the present invention requires no calibration. Additionally, the processing algorithm is able to process out many sources of artifacts such as when sleep onset is not associated with anticipated eye and head movements.
The processing of the present invention relies not on body movement, but on EEG criteria. Because EEG defined sleep occurs prior to changes in body movements, the methods that rely upon body movements will not detect sleep onset rapidly enough. Further, the processing algorithm of the present invention does not require sampling of the signal over a prolonged period of time (e.g., 30 seconds) as in other devices.
The present invention measures sleep onset directly, and not by indirect actions of sleep on driver inputs. It is thus less susceptible to variability in driver and road conditions. Moreover, the present invention does not require prior determination of xe2x80x9cnormalxe2x80x9d behavior.
In addition, the present invention in an alternative embodiment transmits the signal to a remote location for analysis and subsequent alert to the operator.
Finally, the present invention relies upon EEG evidence of sleep that usually precedes behavioral manifestations of sleep.